Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Why you shouldn't believe 'Facebook backlash' numbers | The Social - CNET News

The following is exactly what I just did on Facebook - deleted all profile, info, hobbies, and interests info:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20005921-36.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheSocial

"The best indication of concern about Facebook and how it handles user privacy is not a quantifiable one. The lack of alternatives to Facebook--as well as the many legitimately good things that the service does, from event organization to keeping in touch with old friends--means that many dissatisfied members probably will not delete their accounts altogether. It's more likely that they may be clamping down on privacy controls, deleting information that has been defaulted to public (the "interests" section, for example), or taking additional privacy-conscious steps like deleting old photo albums. There's not a good way for market research firms, pollsters, or pundits to find this out. It could very well still be happening.

The reason for Facebook to be concerned is that many of these actions that members could be taking will make their profiles less valuable to advertisers because they'll be chipping away at "engagement," that magic factor that Facebook execs love to hold up. If you delete information on your profile, it's tougher to target ads. If you're deleting a friend from your contacts list, that's one fewer News Feed that your Facebook-connected third-party actions will show up in--and so forth. That's something that I'm sure has been the topic of many a discussion internally at Facebook over the past few weeks, and maintaining engagement levels could indeed be very central to the company's current decision-making process."

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